Greater New Orleans

NO JOB TOO BIG FOR MILLWORKER

STAFF PHOTO BY TED JACKSONMillworker John Hartsock shows off the decorative panels with intricate joint work that he made for a luxury vacation home in the Caribbean.

By Molly ReidStaff writer

Saturday, October 27, 2007

NAME: John Hartsock

CRAFT: Millwork; specializes in turning work

YEARS IN THE TRADE: 22

WHY HE LOVES IT: 'I'm proud that I have had a role in preserving the architectural fabric of this city, ' he says.

NO JOB TOO HARD: Millworker John Hartsock doesn't like to do easy.

Pointing out the carefully edged rails and perfectly squared posts in the Hi-Ho Lounge, which he and business partner Lori Bernard purchased in the spring of 2006, Hartsock waved off his own handiwork.

"This is just junk work, " he said. "This is nothing."

Now, Hartsock said, he gets turned on by the more complex, difficult projects that come through his Marigny workshop. From reconstructing a 19th-century cupola for the Presbytere to turning out more than 300 complex posts and panels for the porch of a Barbados mansion, Hartsock relishes any project that can whet his artisanal appetite after 22 years in the business.

"We've outlasted them all, " he said of the local millworkers who were both his competitors and mentors in the early days. "We take on oddball millwork that no one else wants to touch."

STAFF PHOTO BY TED JACKSON'It's unbelievable the kind of architecture we have - the complexity, the diversity and the execution of it,' says millworker John Hartsock.

GETTING STARTED: Before learning his trade, Hartsock, 52, dealt and repaired Vespa motor scooters in the Lower Garden District; that was after getting out of bartending.

Across the street from his shop was Wes Forsythe, an aging Magazine Street antiques dealer. Forsythe had bought a lathe, but "was never much of a turner, " Hartsock said.

Interested by the machine, Hartsock first learned how to turn through a bit of child's play.

"Some lady was making these dolls, and she needed these buttons turned -- little mushroom-cap buttons. That was the first thing I lathed, " he remembered.

When Hartsock heard Forsythe had turned down a well-paying gig for a set of 12-foot posts, he took on the challenge, effectively shoving himself headfirst into the millwork business.

Despite his lack of formal training, Hartsock said he was familiar with machines, from working in a cyclotron laboratory at Michigan State University to learning the ins and outs of Vespa repair, and trusted in his ability to learn quickly on the job.

"I've always been a tinkerer, so I guess that gave me a leg up, " he said.

After a year of working the lathe with Forsythe as a business partner, Forsythe became terminally ill. Before his death in 1987, he left the budding millworker a planer, lathe, jointer and table saw.

For his first studio, Hartsock moved into a 900-square-foot space, formerly a coffin storage room for a funeral home, in Mid-City. As the years went on, millworkers Floyd Lodriguez and Ed Goldman would stop by the shop, both to check out the young competition and to coach him.

Hartsock also gave his learning curve a cushion by using old framing cypress salvaged from houses facing demolition.

"It was really labor-intensive, but the materials were cheap, so if I messed something up, it wasn't too big a deal, " he said.

UP THE LADDER: From the early days of basic porch spindles and railings, Hartsock moved on to more complex posts, columns and porch brackets.

"Then, as time goes on, we do bigger columns, then we do fluted columns, then that becomes easy and commonplace, " he said.

A set of columns for the Jax Brewery was one of Hartsock's first big challenges, he recalled. Later, he received a large order from a wealthy real estate and investment tycoon building a $40 million vacation home in Barbados. What started out as a set of complex mahogany and teak posts, each topped with a fluted capital and 7-inch acanthus, turned into a three-year project that produced more than 300 posts and intricate panels to go between them.

STAFF PHOTO BY TED JACKSONHartsock spent years developing more than 300 decorative panels for a luxury home in the Caribbean.

In 2005, Hartsock was commissioned to reconstruct the cupola of the Presbytere, which had not had a cupola since, as lore has it, a hurricane took it off in 1915 (though evidence points to it being missing years earlier).

Hartsock and his team jointed more than 500 pieces of steam-bent cedar to "sheath" the dome-shaped structure in preparation for its roofing. The four-month project was completed two weeks before Hurricane Katrina. How did it fare in the 21st-century hurricane?

"Didn't lose a shingle, " Hartsock said.

PASSING IT ON: After becoming a master craftsman from years of mostly self-directed tinkering, Hartsock has begun passing the torch to Marvin Hirsch, 34, who first started in the shop when he was 16, but began working steadily for Hartsock in 2000. As Hirsch bent over the lathe to turn a column rosette, Hartsock stood by with halcyon ease, dragging on a cigarette.

"A year ago, he wasn't able to do that, " he said of Hirsch, who had long been one of the shop's main millworkers but is now its "number one turner."

STAFF PHOTO BY TED JACKSONMain turner Marvin Hirsch, 34, turns a column rosette on one of the shop's lathes.

As for his own evolution as a craftsman, Hartsock remains driven by challenge, which may have been what prompted him to go into the music venue business with his purchase of the Hi-Ho Lounge.

And if there is any place that can provide a bevy of architectural styles and workmanship Everests, it's New Orleans, he said.

"It's unbelievable the kind of architecture we have -- the complexity, the diversity and the execution of it, " Hartsock said. "It's great to be able to work on the range of it. I love being a part of the architectural fabric of the city."

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Molly Reid can be reached at mreid@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3448.